Yet while those occurrences alone have greatly reduced the odds of porcine aviation, there is an even more gobsmacking demonstration that nothing can be taken for granted — St Kilda is on top of the AFL ladder.

Yes, the same Saints who were not so much marching into this season as limping like a septuagenarian club cricketer after 80 overs in the field.

The same Saints whose high-priced recruit Dan Hannebery was put up on the blocks to have his body "rebuilt" before playing a single game, leaving the impression the luckless Saints had paid for a Ferrari and gotten a clapped out Commodore.

The same Saints whose best key position player Jake Carlisle underwent preseason back surgery which, with the loss of serially-concussed forward Paddy McCartin, left them with about as much aerial strike power as the Tongan Air Force.

No wonder coach Alan Richardson, already the source of dark rumblings from Saints fans after winning just four games in 2018, was the short-priced favourite with bloodthirsty bookies fielding markets on the first coach to lose his job.

Yet the Saints haven't sunk straight into that seemingly inevitable mire. Instead after victories over Gold Coast, Essendon, Hawthorn and Melbourne interspersed with a narrow defeat at Fremantle, Richardson now seems like the latest name on a growing list of coaches who have benefitted from the new softer, more "mindful" AFL.

Richmond's Damien Hardwick and Collingwood's Nathan Buckley have both thrived after surviving the axe that once would have come down harder than a hanging judge's gavel on coaches with such relatively poor records and long tenure.

Like the Tigers and Magpies, St Kilda put strong support around Richardson with experienced assistants Brett Ratten and Brendon Lade given much credit for their influence at Moorabbin this season.

At the same time retired Storm star Billy Slater has proven a popular presence at the club as a leadership advisor and fitness coach Matt Hornsby is also praised by club insiders for getting the best from those players still on the park — as evidenced by the way the Saints ran the relatively sluggish Demons off their feet on Saturday.

This is not to suggest Richardson has not been the major driving force in the Saints' mini-renaissance. But the sudden improvement in results in his sixth year at the club is another demonstration of the benefits of supporting an apparently doomed coach rather than answering the fans' calls for blood.

Of course it is only round five. The Saints will face tougher examinations in coming weeks — although who will apply those tests is open for conjecture.

With only the Easter Monday clash between Hawthorn and Geelong to play in round five, the Saints are one game clear of 10 teams separated only by percentage.

Ideally for the AFL, such wildly unpredictable results herald a new age of egalitarianism in which the levelling influences of the salary cap, draft and football department spending limits mean anything could happen on any given Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

There is no doubt the gap between the race leaders and the chasing peloton has tightened. Yet it still seems more likely the current log jam is the result of early season fixturing, injuries/availability and perhaps even the required adjustment to a swag of new rules.

Just as West Coast's even more impressive victory over the Magpies had two weeks earlier — even allowing for the Eagles' unexpected defeats by the Lions and Port Adelaide.

Yet to underscore the fragility of even the best teams, the Magpies are no certainty (who is?) against Essendon in Thursday's Anzac Day match and the Eagles will have to dust themselves off after an abject day against Port Adelaide and travel to play resurgent Geelong.

So until the cream rises, throw a dart when doing your footy tips, don't think about gambling on the AFL responsibly or otherwise and enjoy going to the footy knowing the only certainty is the "fan engagement" will make your ears bleed.

After all, just when you thought nothing could be more wildly unlikely than St Kilda topping the ladder this crazy AFL season produced an even more stunning demonstration that literally anything can happen.